


Bloodsport

by love_killed_the_superstar



Series: Always Be Free (Or Die Trying) [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Canonical Character Death, Developing Relationship, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lesbian Character, Mild Gore, Past Relationship(s), Road Trips, Roommates, Zombie Apocalypse, basically pearl and mystery girl meet in the apocalypse and become zombie slayer roommates, it's very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 03:12:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8187311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: It was the end of the world. Lapis had had her face chewed off, Jasper had eaten a bullet and Amethyst had cleaned out her supplies and hit the road. Pearl wasn't sure how she would make it on her own.Then she met Her.(Or, Pearl and Mystery Girl become zombie slayer roommates.)





	1. The End Of The World

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Not sure if I was going to upload this right away, but heck, why not, it's October and what better time to write the scary stuff, right?  
> Originally this was rosepearl, but fuck it, right now mystery pearl calls to me more than rosepearl so here we are. Plus, Mystery Girl is totally zombie apocalypse material, so I wanted to write her in, because what's a zombie apocalypse without grunge, plaid shirts and motorcycle chases?  
> Anyway, just a heads up before you start, this is a bit darker and gorier than my usual stuff, so keep that in mind. And yes I did take the title from that Raleigh Ritchie song, shut up.

It was the end of the world.

Pearl wasn't expecting it to go like this. Just a few years ago, she thought losing Rose was the end of the world. She wasn't sure how she'd go on. Thought she would die from the pain of seeing her loved one bleed out, see the light leaving her eyes, hearing her own screams coming from that infant's mouth. How had she been so naïve?

That said, a nuclear war caused by the weaponry manufacturers simply known as 'The Diamonds' wasn't something anyone had anticipated. Rose had even worked closely with one of the chairmen, who only went by the alias of Pink, and she had never mentioned anything about biological warfare breaking out in the event of a world war. It was never easy to predict these things, obviously, but even so, this seemed like a particularly strange twist of fate, like something out of a bad sci-fi novel.

Pearl probably wasn't cut out for the apocalypse.

She hadn't done her homework like everybody else seemed to have done. Amethyst and Jasper and Jasper's girlfriend Lapis watched The Walking Dead, they knew zombie 101, they knew just how to kill a zombie, how to scavenge for food, how to negotiate. They'd been useful for a while, and Pearl decided the safest course of action would be to stay with her roommates until this apocalypse passed.

Of course, Pearl hadn't accounted for Lapis having her face chewed off and Jasper eating a bullet. Who even knew where Amethyst was now. They'd stayed together for a few weeks afterwards, but Amethyst was crushed over the death of her sister, and witnessing Lapis's death had been so traumatic for the both of them that they had hardly slept. When Pearl did eventually pass out from a combination of exhaustion and hunger, Amethyst supposedly packed her bags and left, because when Pearl awoke it was to a completely cleaned out set of cupboards and no Amethyst. She cried for days afterwards.

So now here she was, out on a supply run, with no fucking back up. She'd become adept with using a sword ever since the outbreak had started (she'd taken up fencing in high school, and the sword she had swiped from the museum she had been visiting during the public zombie outbreak, while very old, was surprisingly efficient in decapitating once she had gotten the hang of how to use it). She'd been training ever since, sometimes with Amethyst, and more recently, by herself. But that might not be enough, especially now she was scavenging completely solo. Pearl steeled herself to venture out anyway. It was just a simple run to a local grocery store. There was no saying that the shelves would still have anything on them, but storage might still have some leftovers.

The moment she pushed the doors open, a putrid smell hit her, washing over her, and she gagged against her hand. Fucking fantastic. Worst case scenario the store had become zombie-infested since she'd last hauled ass out of there, and the best case scenario, some poor survivors had either been eaten or killed themselves out of desperation to escape this screwed up situation. Either way, there were corpses beyond the door, and the stench of blood and entrails was almost too much for Pearl to stomach. (She was sensitive to smells anyway, but she'd thrown up enough times in the past few months at the odours of post-zombie scenes that she'd managed to adapt. How fucked up was that?)

Pearl slipped through the doors and ducked behind a cardboard display, peering around the door to survey the area. She could see a few body parts near the cash registers, and one employee lay on the floor near the baskets, partially eaten and drained of blood by the large slash across the neck – lacerations caused no doubt by the box cutter clenched in their fist. What a horrible way to go.

She couldn't hear any zombies, but that wasn't to say there weren't any around. Pearl crept around the different aisles, checking every shelf. She managed to grab a few packets of instant noodles (definitely not her favourite, but desperate times called for desperate measures), some tinned meat that was almost past its expiration date, a few bottles of water, pasta that still had a few weeks left on them, and some peaches that weren't quite mouldy yet, just incredibly soft. It wasn't a whole lot, but it would do for now. At least, until she and the dondai found a better place to clean out.

She unloaded the supplies into her car, careful not to draw attention to it as she did so. Fortunately, it had been battered up pretty badly in numerous scrapes with the infected, so it looked almost as useless as the rest of the lifeless cars parked outside. She sincerely hoped Greg wasn't expecting it back any time soon.

Now that she had scoured the main part of the store for essentials it was time to check the back. It was risky, but she wasn't convinced her supplies would last more than a few days, and if she ran into Garnet or Bismuth or Greg, or even a stranger that needed her help, she'd need extra.

As soon as she opened the doors she knew she'd made a fatal error. The bodies splayed out on the ground weren't dead after all, and now there was a crowd of hungry and pissed off zombies staring straight at her. She turned to run, but she felt a hand graze the back of her neck, and she couldn't hold back a scream of sheer terror and panic as she scrambled away, skidding across the floor on her knees and reaching for her sword, slung on her back in a flimsy holder. She sent one zombie's head rolling to the floor, splashing her sneakers with dark, congealed blood. It only allowed her to take a few more steps back before another was there, reaching for her with its dead hand and dead eyes.

“Get back!” she snarled, swiping her sword through it. Though it's torso began to fall apart, spilling out a disgusting mixture of bodily fluids, the zombie remained undeterred and just as eager to rip her chest out as before. There were too many. Her breaths were coming out too fast, she was in a real panic, and her sword was slipping from her hands, because they were so fucking sweaty _because_ she was in a panic. Damn it.

She was just about to shut her eyes and wait for incoming death, when the zombie somewhere to her left made a sudden gargling sound, and Pearl realised someone had stabbed it through its fucking windpipe. Moments later, the zombie reaching directly for her was lying on the floor with its skull crushed under a powerful boot.

Pearl's gaze travelled up, and there stood a girl with candy pink hair, so reminiscent of Rose's that it hurt. But of course, this couldn't be – unless she was already dead, and this was just the sweet hallucination of a dying woman. No... this was painfully, disgustingly real, and the zombie's brains began to squish out of the skull, inching closer and closer to her until she scrambled away, fighting back the urge to be sick yet again. The girl in front of her gave a dry, humourless laugh, before beating the shit out of a zombie behind her using a baseball bat with... a blade stuck through it. So that was how she had taken that zombie out through the throat.

“Time to get off your butt, princess, and start showing me how good you are with that thing,” the mystery girl called back to her, continuing to pummel the last signs of life out of these zombies. Pearl staggered to her feet, dizzy with confusion, and began to swing at the zombies still crowding her, gradually clearing a red carpet of blood for her and the mystery girl to escape from.

“Come on!” she cried, and the mystery girl grabbed a cardboard box before following her out, battering several zombies with the box as she ran.

The zombies chased them from the store, and Pearl found herself being grabbed by the wrist. Mystery Girl was pulling her along, a lot quicker than Pearl despite one arm being weighed down by the box she had carried back with her.

“I'll give you a ride out of town, okay?” she called breathlessly. “Just... just keep running with me, until they lose interest!”

Pearl didn't have the air in her lungs to tell this mysterious woman that she had a car just on the other side of the store parking lot.

The woman dragged the both of them along to a bike parked in a bush nearby, and dragged it out, before handing Pearl the box and climbing on.

“Keep that on your lap while we drive,” she instructed, and Pearl climbed on behind her. Normally she was terrified at the prospect of riding a bike, especially without a helmet or some other form of safety gear, but right now the toss up between riding a bike with an attractive woman and dying at the hands of zombies wanting to feast on her brains was... well, there wasn't much of a decision to be made, really.

She rested the box on her lap and held on tight to the woman's waist, squeezing her eyes shut.

The engine spluttered to life, and the woman snarled as the bike tore out of the bushes and into the road. The hum of zombies following them trailed on for miles, and Pearl learned to stop peering anxiously over her shoulder every few seconds, because at the speed this woman was driving at, they would easily be able to outrun zombies. At least, until they ran out of gas.

The sun was just setting in the sky when they pulled into the driveway of an old house, with all windows boarded up and covered in mud and moss. The garage was still miraculously in working condition, and the woman hopped off the bike for a moment to bring it into the shelter of the garage, before shutting the door tight and weighing it down using weights from a workout kit.

“It's been successful in holding them off so far,” she explained, sensing Pearl's confusion. “That said, I've been careful not to give them reason to look. I've been spending the days caking the walls in mud and shrubbery to disguise the smell, since they're attracted to the scent of blood.”

“That's... a good idea, actually,” Pearl admitted. “They won't bother investigating if they can't smell food, right?”

“Exactly. It's been a pretty solid tactic, actually. But anyway, enough about my situation. What's your story?”

“I was on a supply run,” Pearl said with a sigh, setting down the box and hugging herself. “But I'm not super strong or anything, so I got outnumbered, as you can see.”

“I have to say, it's kinda weird seeing a lone traveller as small as you,” commented the woman. “And, like, I'm not trying to put you down for that? But man, you seriously don't have a group you're staying with, or anything? People shouldn't be sending you out for supply runs alone, so...”

“I had one, once,” muttered Pearl. “My ex-girlfriend's sisters and their flatmate, we all used to hang out a lot and when the apocalypse happened, we stuck together. But... one of them died, and the other one couldn't live without her, put a gun in her mouth. So it was just two of us then, but she packed off too, cleaned me out as well. So... I ended up alone.”

“Shit,” breathed the woman, wide-eyed. “That's terrible, I'm so sorry. There's no one you can go to? What about your ex?”

“She's dead too.” Pearl lowered her head. “A few years ago, actually. Her boyfriend and their son... I don't know where they are. They weren't even in town when it happened, and I've tried reaching them, but my phone ran down weeks ago.”

“Shit. That really does suck.”

“Yeah. And what about you? Are _you_ alone?”

“My old housemate Kevin took off with my car,” the woman said flatly. “Thought my idea of wallpapering in mud was stupid and I wouldn't last a week, so he skipped town. Asshole. Since then, yeah, I've been by myself. It sucks, but I've been managing fine so far.”

Pearl glanced down at the box at her feet and enquired, “What exactly is in this thing anyway?”

The woman grinned.

“Sachets of instant mochas?”

Pearl slapped her forehead.

“How exactly have you been managing fine when _this_ is what you're out risking your life for?!”

“Hey, this isn't what people are snatching up, so I might as well take it. What's the problem anyway? I wasn't the one who needed saving,” pointed out the woman, narrowing her eyes slightly. Pearl's cheeks coloured.

“I... I only needed saving because they surrounded me. And yes, I'm indebted to you, but it doesn't mean I can't point out just how ludicrous your idea of essentials are to me!”

“All right, point taken.” The woman stretched. “Anyway, what's your name? Isn't that kinda how these introductions are supposed to start?”

“It's Pearl.” It didn't feel like surnames mattered anymore. “And you?”

“Sheena.” The reply was short and simple, and she untied the green plaid shirt from around her waist and held it out. “Here, you look cold. You can borrow it for now.”

Miraculously, it was devoid of zombie blood. Pearl examined it thoroughly, and when she found no traces of blood, guts or rotting flesh, she slipped it on. It was warm, at least, if not a little worn out and creased around the sleeves.

“I... thanks,” she said softly. She averted her eyes. “Sheena, are you taking roommates right now?”

She could hear the grin in Sheena's voice.

“Not usually, but I can make exceptions for cute girls like you.”

Pearl blushed hard, and swallowed.

“U-Uh, I can, um, work for my rent. You know, go out on supply runs and stuff.”

“I'll hold you to that.” Sheena clapped her hands together. “Now then! That's out of the way, so let's start on some dinner. You pick up anything useful?”

Pearl opened her mouth, and then cursed.

“Shit. I left the dondai when we escaped.”

“Wait, you have a car and you didn't just take that?” Sheena exclaimed in disbelief.

“You were pulling me along and I could hardly catch my breath, I couldn't speak!” Pearl defended. “Plus I didn't really feel like circling back around that pack of zombies just to retrieve my car, not when there was a perfect getaway vehicle already being offered to me.”

“I can't believe this,” groaned Sheena, shaking her head. “How much food did you have stored in there?”

“Enough supplies to last one person a few weeks? Two people, more like a week, pushing it for two.”

Sheena flexed her hands, contemplating, and sighed.

“All right. We'll go get the dondai back in the morning, once those zombies have either scattered or gone back inside. That is, assuming it's inconspicuous enough to survive the night without someone lifting it.”

“I installed bulletproof glass in it last summer,” Pearl explained. “Someone would have to chisel away at it all night to cause any damage, so it's virtually impossible to break into. Not to mention it isn't exactly the most glamorous car right now, since a bunch of zombies scratched the paintwork up a few weeks ago.”

“When we get it back, we're doing the mud caking trick,” Sheena decided. “It works wonders in giving people the impression that it's completely trashed, believe me.”

“I'll take your word for it,” Pearl said, holding her gaze evenly. “I... is this too sudden? We only met like an hour ago, and we're already talking about moving in together.”

“It's nothing more than me taking on a new roommate, so where's the harm?” Sheena grabbed her hand and squeezed, and her eyes held something tired and worn in them when she next spoke. “Besides, it's the end of the world. What's the point in moving slowly?”

Well, Pearl couldn't fault her for that.

 


	2. Rules To Abide By

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheena and Pearl talk, and run into trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major warning this chapter, conversation/contemplation about (attempted) suicide, disturbing gore flashback, basically the subject matter for the mid part of the chapter is not pretty. If that kind of thing triggers you, please skip over once they've gone to bed.
> 
> This isn't the darkest thing I've written but it's one of the darkest things I've put on this site, so... yeah. Still, if grit and angst and apocalypse shit is your kinda thing, read on.

“So where were you when the corruption happened?”

Sheena popped the question that night over dinner, with the two of them sat around a crummy old kitchen table while a small fire was going to provide them with enough light to see their forks. It wasn't much, just some chilli from a can, but Pearl wasn't about to complain. The apocalypse didn't leave room to be a fussy eater, after all.

“I was at home. I lived in an apartment in town with my friend from college, her sister and her sister's girlfriend. I was just unloading some groceries when there was this blinding flash from the kitchen window, and then... all this screaming from outside. I heard it affected everyone who wasn't sheltered in some way, like it was down to direct exposure, although I don't know if there were any lingering after effects.”

“So it was direct exposure that caused it?” mused Sheena, the scraping of her fork inside the can being the only noise audible while she gathered her thoughts. “Interesting. I think you're right about the after effects, though. I've seen people turning weeks into this shitshow... either that, or it just affects people differently and some are late turners. I can't think of a better explanation than that.”

“That's... that's terrible.”

“Sorry, I interrupted. What then?”

Pearl swallowed.

“Then, the next thing I knew my roommates were screaming that we needed to go, I threw some of my stuff into a case, grabbed that and the groceries, and we were gone. I tried to call my ex-girlfriend's partner, I needed to know their son was okay, but he never picked up, and... well, all the signal is gone now, isn't it? So now I'll never know.”

“How old is he? The kid.”

“Five,” Pearl said with a sad smile, shaking her head slightly. “He's like... a ball of energy and sunshine. Just like her. Not knowing if he's okay... or if he's even still alive... it's killing me.”

They fell back into subdued silence, only broken by the scraping of forks against cans, and eventually Sheena gave up and moved to the couch, so Pearl did too.

“I was hungover, after a rock show the night before,” Sheena murmured into the darkness. “When I woke up, the world was already fucked up. I didn't even get a chance to call my parents, to tell them goodbye, or stay safe, or I'm sorry for being a shitty daughter who ignored all of your well-meaning advice over the years because I was so caught up in my own teenage crap. I wish I could have just talked to them, or my friends... my old friend from college, Kevin, came to my door being chased by zombies, so I started boarding up the windows that very day. I think, maybe I was just numb to it all? I don't remember feeling devastated, really, just... accepting. Like, okay, the end is nigh, better start zombie-proofing my house. Fuck, I'm so screwed up.”

“I think being practical about it is a much better solution than getting hysterical, like I did,” muttered Pearl, bringing up her knees to tuck under her chin. “I was such a mess, I could barely think straight. I threw up twice that day, first from seeing one of my neighbours having their vocal chords torn out of their neck, and second from seeing one of my roommates hacking a zombie up with a freaking bread knife, of all things. It wasn't like we were equipped to deal with zombies or anything, so seeing all that blood spurting out was too much. Without them, I probably would have been dead by day one.”

“That's normal, though,” Sheena protested. “That's... how people are supposed to be. We're supposed to be horrified, and disgusted and terrified by these things, so what does that make me?”

“A survivor,” Pearl said simply. “Humans weren't supposed to survive something like this, that was the whole point of the corruption in the first place, I think. If you can cope with this world,you're a survivor, and you wouldn't be fighting so hard if you didn't want to live, right?”

Sheena was silent for a few moments, but in the darkness, her hand brushed up against Pearl's.

“You know what? You're right. I don't have enough energy in me to keep obsessing over things like this. You ready to sleep?”

Pearl hummed in agreement. “Yeah. What about the fire, are you going to keep it burning? Doesn't it attract too much attention?”

“The zombies are only attracted to the scent of blood and meat, and from what I've gathered on supply runs their eyesight is shit, so smoke does absolutely nothing but further disguise my home. Other survivors are my main problem, which is why I don't light it during the day. But don't even worry about that, I have trip lines around the premises, so if someone comes too close, I'll know about it.”

“You've really thought everything through, haven't you?” Pearl remarked, impressed. Sheena shrugged.

“Like I said, I was too busy being practical to really think about how the apocalypse made me feel.”

She led Pearl upstairs, purely by feel given how dark it was, and grabbed something from her pocket. There was a few clicking sounds, and then a flame licked up into the consuming darkness – a jade green lighter that matched her eyes (which Pearl couldn't help thinking was tastelessly cliché). Sheena showed her towards a queen size bed surrounded by posters from different musicians, the biggest being a Mike Krol poster hanging right above the bed.

“I don't have a camp bed, and Kevin used to sleep on the couch, so it's either the couch or you share with me. I don't mind either way, but if you sleep on the couch and zombies or survivors break in they're gonna get you first, and somehow I don't think that would make me a very good host.”

“Yeah, I can see where they might get that idea from,” Pearl said dryly.

Sheena's options didn't weigh too good either way. On the one hand, there was higher risk of death if she took the couch. But having the share a bed with a woman that she very obviously had a crush on, and who appeared to at least feel a similar attraction... well, Pearl wasn't expecting her life to suddenly become a trashy dystopian romance novel, nor did she want it to be, not while she was still trying to get over how everyone she cared about had abandoned her in one way or another. It was too early to tell, but Pearl didn't want Sheena to leave too.

But, they were both grown women. Surely they could share a bed without things getting weird, right?

Pearl changed in the poky bathroom, that smelt damp and untouched, and crawled into Sheena's bed clad only in her tank top and underwear. Sheena slipped in a few minutes later, hair wonderfully ruffled, and casually parked a hunting rifle up against her bedside table.

“You can never be too careful,” she explained, at Pearl's aghast expression. “Trust me, if I was going to use it on you, I would have by now.”

“Go ahead,” Pearl said bleakly, gaze moving up to stare at the ceiling. “It would be better than staying in this screwed up place.”

Sheena paused.

“You tried before?”

Pearl shook her head, barking out a humourless laugh.

“No. I'm a coward. Once, after Rose died, I thought... maybe I should be gone. But I'm too scared of how it would feel. I'm scared of letting the people I love down, by, by giving up.”

“Rose... is she your ex?” guessed Sheena.

“Yes. She... she was so beautiful, and strong. She didn't fear anything, didn't even show fear as she was bleeding out. She was more scared of her son being premature than her own life being in jeopardy. I suppose, before that all happened, it was what I admired most about her – her courage, that is. I wish I had even an ounce of it. But I'm nothing short of useless, too useless to even kill myself. And then what happened to Jasper... she shot herself, right in front of me and Amethyst, and it was so devastating. I can't imagine doing that to somebody else.”

“Seriously, don't,” said Sheena, sharply. “If you turn, maybe. But, look, I may not know you, I might not know anything about you or what you've been through, but _I'd_ care if you died, so don't even think about it, you got it?”

Stunned, Pearl nodded wordlessly.

“Good. Now, get some rest. Tomorrow, we retrieve your dondai.”

“Got it. Uh, good night,” muttered Pearl. She turned over, facing the wall, and tried not to focus too hard on the feeling of Sheena's warm back pressed up against her. She felt soft, familiar... but Rose was gone, and Sheena was _not_ Rose, so it was just cruel to compare the two, wasn't it? Pearl missed the feeling of having someone spooning her while she slept.

Time passed strangely in the bed, but Pearl's insomnia was broken by a voice.

“...Hey.”

Pearl stiffened.

“...Hello?”

“Sorry, I can't... I can't stop thinking about what you said. What happened to your group. I just... do you... do you ever dream about it?”

What a cruel thing to ask. She was going to dream about it for sure now that Sheena had brought it up.

“Not anymore,” Pearl lied, curling up into a ball. “But it was bad, so would you blame me?”

“Of course not,” Sheena said immediately, and Pearl could hear the frown in her voice. “Shit, I'm sorry I brought it up. Just... if you want to talk about it... y'know, I'm here.”

“You sound curious,” murmured Pearl, eyes still shut. “You really want to hear how it went down?”

“I guess I do. I... I haven't had a group since Kevin left. I haven't lost anybody like you have, so I guess I just want to be prepared so when it happens I don't completely break.”

Pearl took a deep breath.

“It doesn't hurt any less if you know what you're in for. It hurt even more when Jasper left, mostly because she did it to herself, right in front of us. But... it was bad. A month, maybe, into the apocalypse, we were on a supply run and we got ambushed by a gang. They were ruthless, they didn't give a shit about their own safety, more concerned with getting our weapons and food than if we took any of them out. Expendable footsoldiers. Anyway, Lapis wasn't taking their bullshit. Thought they were all walk and no talk.”

“That doesn't sound good,” whispered Sheena.

“It wasn't.” Pearl's fingernails dug into her hands. “We expected them to just shoot her or stab her or something, we begged her to run, but... it was worse. They tossed her into a pit... a pit full of them. The dead.”

Tears filled up behind her eyelids.

“No,” Sheena said in a tiny, disbelieving voice.

“They threw her in with the zombies and she was eaten alive,” Pearl ground out, pressing the heels of her hands into her tightly shut eyes, as if the discomfort of the motion would somehow ground her to the present, force her to think about the sensation instead of reliving those fucking terrible memories again. “I've never been so scared in my life. Her screams are something I won't ever forget until I blow my brains out like Jasper did.”

Sheena rolled over, and Pearl felt strong arms wrapping around her.

“I'm so sorry,” Sheena whispered brokenly, cradling Pearl gently like she might break. “Oh my god. I'm so sorry. Please, please don't think about it anymore. Try and get some sleep.”

Like she could sleep after that.

 

…

 

Apparently she had managed to fall asleep eventually, because the next thing she recalled was the feeling of Sheena's warm arms untangling from her. Pearl couldn't recall what she had dreamed about that night, except that it left her with a hollow feeling when Sheena prodded her awake the next morning.

“Rise and shine. We have a big day ahead of us.”

The room was dark, save for a few shafts of light streaming in from cracks between the boards on the windows.

“What time is it?”

Sheena grabbed a watch from her bedside table.

“Eight. The corrupted will probably leave us alone if we go now, they always seem lazier in the day. Maybe they need to charge up for nights.”

“It's possible. They could feed off of solar power, or something. It seems highly unlikely that protein alone could keep them going, and I've never seen them eating carbohydrates,” Pearl mused.

Sheena burst out laughing.

“Oh man, you're something else. Come on now, get dressed and we'll go fetch your car. Do you have spare clothes inside?”

“A few changes, yes,” Pearl answered, grateful that Sheena had turned around for privacy's sake. “A few sentimental things, some emergency food and pharmaceuticals... and the food I picked up yesterday. I think most of it will still be fine to eat.”

“And your keys? Please, God, don't forget your keys if I'm using up precious gas driving you there,” pleaded Sheena.

“Don't worry, they're in my jacket,” promised Pearl with a wry smile. She tugged up her pants and felt Sheena's gaze lingering on her butt. “Hey, don't look!”

“Sorry,” Sheena said, not a hint of apology in her voice.

“Look, just because you're cute doesn't mean you get to sneak looks,” Pearl scolded, cheeks flooding with heat all the same.

“Right, right, sorry, it was douchey of me.”

Were they just going to pretend like last night never happened? Part of Pearl was grateful for the distraction, but another part of her felt like the elephant in the room was just too big for them to ignore. Things had gotten dark, really dark, and Pearl was shaken up by how easily her emotions had come undone in Sheena's presence. There was such thing as having a natural chemistry, but if it brought out the worst in her, was it something the two of them should be encouraging?

“Sheena?” Pearl murmured distantly, buttoning up the shirt she had borrowed the night before.

“Yeah?”

There it was, an opportunity to call it quits, to just forget it had ever even happened. And yet-

“It's... it's nothing. Forget it.”

-somehow, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

 

…

 

Fifteen minutes later they were on the road, having split some stale crackers covered in honey for breakfast. Pearl found she minded the sensation of riding on the back of Sheena's bike a lot more when they weren't running for their lives, and she clung on tightly, though Sheena had been kind enough to let Pearl take her battered old helmet out this time. She couldn't deny the cool rush she got, though. The morning was crisp, the surrounding zombies were too far into the fields to reach the lane they were speeding down in time, and best of all, Sheena's body was warm to cling to.

For the first time in a long time, Pearl felt comfortable in another woman's shirt. Her eyes squeezed shut.

She even smelled kind of like Rose, albeit mixed in with the faded scents of bike grease and old cigarettes.

_Stop. She's not Rose. Stop comparing her to Rose._

“You okay back there?” Sheena called over the rumble of the engine. “You're being awful quiet.”

“I'm fine,” Pearl replied, hugging Sheena's waist a little tighter, pressing her cheek up against Sheena's shoulder blades. “Still a bit tired, that's all.”

“Well, I try and get up early-ish to get the head start on the corrupted, so you'd better get used to being up this early,” laughed Sheena. “Though, the days are getting shorter so we might have to start planning our time more efficiently, since we'll be losing sunlight rapidly in the winter.”

“I'm scared for winter, honestly,” confessed Pearl. “People will be more vulnerable than ever, to normal diseases and infections in addition to turning and, well, being eaten alive. Survivors will be more desperate. What if they try to break in?”

“Then we'll hear them out,” Sheena said firmly. “I mean, if I didn't give you a chance, we'd have never learned more about each other, you know? But I trust my instincts, and if they seem shady, I'll point my gun in their faces, as simple as that.”

“That doesn't seem like a sound tactic. What if they surround us, and they have snipers or something? We need a bunker or something. That's what they always have in these survival apocalypse television shows, right?”

“Well, I only have a basement, unfortunately,” scoffed Sheena. “And bunkers aren't a perfect solution, you know. If you're sealed into the ground and run out of supplies, the enemy could just wait for you to open the door and open fire on you. And then what?”

“Well, then I'd-”

The brakes screeched, and Pearl cried out in confusion, gripping Sheena as tightly as she could to keep herself from flying off the end of the bike. Sheena swerved, skidding across the road, and barely managed to keep the bike upright.

“Sheena, what-?!” Pearl started, before a hand clapped over her mouth. Sheena shushed her, staring straight ahead. Pearl looked, and saw.

They had made it into town, but only barely. Bodies littered the street ahead of them, and at every street leading to the grocery store a guard was parked, brandishing bayonet rifles. The blood around the bodies was concealed, dark. They'd been there all night, Pearl realised with a sinking feeling.

They weren't going to get past.

“They're a gang,” whispered Sheena. “I've seen quite a few go through Ocean Town before, but never Beach City... and I've never seen these hoods in particular. Have you?”

Pearl gripped Sheena's waist, peering over her shoulder, and scrutinised the guard.

Dark, unruly hair. Same scratched up bayonets, same wild look in their eyes, and all with a matching emblem on different parts of their bodies. The guard in front of them, flexing and grunting as she surveyed the area, had a deep red tattoo on her arm.

“Oh Jesus, I know who they are,” squeaked Pearl, feeling faint. “We have to get out of here, right now!”

“What? Who are they?” Sheena gripped her shoulders. “Talk to me, Pearl.”

“They're bad news, and we're in serious shit if they spot us.” Pearl helped Sheena move the bike into her usual hiding spot, a large patch of bushes hidden from view. She squatted down there too, frantically keeping her eyes locked on the guard. “I'm not fucking with you, they will kill us if we get found out.”

“All right, I believe you,” Sheena whispered, looking a little less certain of herself now. “Are they the gang that were involved with your friend's death? Lapis, was it?”

“That's right,” Pearl breathed, heart hammering in her chest. She watched the watchman scan the area once more, before taking out a cigarette for a quick smoke. “They call themselves... The Rubies.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if/when this will be picked up again but I'm hoping to get at least one more chapter out in October since it is Halloween month. If you liked or have any future chapter ideas, please let me know!


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